They used to say
by HanFei
Summary: Long time ago, her parents used to tell her things, things that made her wondered, things that made her frowned, things that almost made who she were, almost. Things that had something to do a Hero and a Leader.


Title: They used to say...

Prompt: I don't want to be a Hero

Author's note: A drabble? A short story? Heck, I don't really know what they call it here. *shrugs* I had some hard time to do them all at once, was forced to treat each section as a separate part of the story, then re-combined them into 1 piece of work. The last part was easiest to write, and I actually finish that part 1st. LOL. I also did some tweaking with some parts so that they somewhat deviated from the canon, just a little.

Anyway, this is just a short story chronicling about Azula's view about what her parents used to say to her, somewhat relating to her growth, perhaps?

Disclaimer: I don't own A: TLA, nor any of those characters, if I do, I won't be here sulking. I will out there contributing in The Legend of Korra's production.

* * *

1.

He used to say, 'What this nation need is a leader.'  
She used to say, 'What we need is a hero.'

Long long time ago, they used to tell her things.

* * *

They used to teach her a lot of things, from the beginning of the world to the edges of the spirit world. They would take her to the library, along with her slightly older brother- tiny hands grasping tiny hands innocently, sheltered by those extremely gigantic palms- to the section where colourful scrolls could be found. Both of them would sit on their parents' laps each and lean on their slim bellies, listening cool tales that they could not see elsewhere, imagining them all coming to life.

Sometimes, they would even bring her to places that she never thought she should go.

Azula was almost three when her father once took her to the tallest place she knew, the highest roof of the palace.

She did not like here. The winds were strong that she could not stand properly, they were blowing against her, she had to grasp her father's flowing robes tightly with both of her little hands. She wanted to go back down where the winds are gentle, where her brother and her mother were. Tentatively, she looked up to her father. He stood there, eyes closed, hands clasped behind.

'Dad...?' She whispered but the winds were cruel for they had taken away her whisper as soon as that voice left her mouth.

He did not response and so she pushed herself even closer to him, closer till she was leaning in front of him, staring straight down to the palace ground. And she gasped sharply. _So... far. _Her amber eyes widened. _So far from... ground._

'No.' a deep voice spoke up coolly, unfazed by the strong and reverberating wind.

She quickly lifted up her head and gazed at him, curiously. 'You shouldn't look down, Azula.' His voice was deep yet gentle. Slowly he lowered his body until his eyes were the same level as her, but he did not look at her, instead he gently place his finger below her chin and push her head slightly upwards as so that she would stared forward, past the palace ground, past the city, past the rural lands, past the port and past grandfather's statue.

'Can you see grandfather standing in front of those little boats?' Despite that she was too young, she could already understand words and phrases, however she still had some problems uttering them out, so she liked to nod instead.

'Can you see that big blue beyond grandfather?'

She nodded again.

'What can you see after the big blue?'

This time she did not nod. She turned her head and gaze at him, confused.

'Try to look forward.'

She looked again. And again she saw only a large patch of big blue sky blurring (or was it sharing) its boundary with the vast blue ocean, with several countable clouds splattered on it. She shook her head.

'Try again.' He grinned.

She squint her eyes hard; she was trying with all her might, to see what was after that big blue. She closed her eyes and opened again, and then closed and opened again hoping that maybe doing so the something will change.

It wasn't helping. So, she shook her head again.

Then she saw something coming out from the invisible horizon, a very tiny and black dot with black smudging line floating about it. She blinked and rubbed her weary eyes. _How...did it...?_ He let out a gentle laugh, 'Always look forward and beyond.' _Beyond? _His hand placed on her shoulder. 'Think beyond even if there's boundary and overcome that boundary.' _What boun-daa-riii? _But it was weightless. 'Just like that little boat did.'

_Why? _

He straightened up, his one hand still on her shoulder. 'That is what leaders do.' She looked up at him again. _Lee-lee-dar...Lee-dar?_

'That is what our nations need.'

-x-

Once, her mother took her to the darkest slum that they could find in the capital.

She did not like there too. The place was dark, wet and dirty, and the people there looked scary. They were accompanying by a large sum of soldiers. Her father had ventured further in. She knew that has something to do with grandfather. So, her mother took the liberty to show them something while they were here, but Zuko was weary so they did not wake him when they arrived. She did not understand. _Why here?_

Her mother carefully placed Azula down on the ground. As soon as her shoes touched the damp ground, her mother pointed her fingers at some of those people lying on the same damp ground she was standing on. Azula furrowed. Somehow these people looked...sad.

'Can you see those people?' Her mother asked quietly.

Azula nodded uneasily.

'Do you know that they are in pain?'

She nodded uneasily again.

'Do you know why they are in pain?'

She did not nod her head. _Why?_

She looked at her mother, beseeching. _Why?_

Her mother gazed at her affectionately as if she knew what Azula was asking. 'Because there is a lot of injustice in this world that cause them to suffer.' There was something in her mother's eyes that made Azula thought she looked sad.

_In-just-tice...unfair...and...suffer...pain..._

She opened her mouth. Her words were blocky and soft. She wasn't sure she got them right, but she was curious what her mother was trying to say. 'How...how...to...help?'

Her mother smiled. She stretched out her hand and gently stroke Azula's hair. 'Do you know what a hero is?'

_He-row? Who he? Row what?_

She looked at her mother, confused. 'A hero is someone great. They give hope to them; they help those people to look forward for something life.' She paused. '-to look forward for their future.' She lowered down and gazed gently into her confused amber eyes. 'And that is what we need. What we all need now.' And Azula saw something glittering in her mother's eyes. There was a word that her mother just said. What was it?

Ho...Hop...hope.

Hope.

Yes, _hope_, somehow that word matched perfectly with what she was seeing in her mother's eyes.

-x-

It had been awhile and Azula thought that she understood what they were trying to tell to her, but there was one part that still confused her. And so, she tiptoed to the highest height she could possibly get and tugged both of their silkily smooth red robes, her amber eyes wide with curiosity mingled with innocence and limited vocabulary, she asked, 'Lee-dar... same...same...as he-row?'

They both looked down at her.

There was an uncomfortable silence, _she was wrong?_ and she fidgeted uneasily.

But she continued to wait for their reply.

They looked at each other. There were small grins graced their face and they nodded their heads as their hands gently stroke the top of her head. Both of them smiled at her, tenderly.

'Yes. Being a leader the same as being a hero.'

And little Azula will never forget that.

* * *

2.

He used to say, 'We need a powerful leader.'  
She used to say, 'We need a compassionate hero.'

Long ago, they used to tell her all sort of contradicting things.

* * *

Azula was confused. They once told her together that being a leader is the same as being a hero. But things felt different now. At least from what she used to remember. For starters, they no longer smile together anymore. They no longer bring her and her brother to library together anymore. They no longer read stories to them together anymore. They no longer do anything together anymore.

Their expressions no longer look as harmonious as they used to, each complimenting one another like she used to remember anymore. The only time they share the same expression was when they look indifferent, during their quiet meals together. But they never fight, whenever her father spoke, her mother just nodded softly and whenever her mother spoke, her father just nodded lightly.

Azula was confused and scared. They said contradicting things, but they never really contradict each other. So, she still hoped, hoping that one day they return back to how they used to, back the time where she once saw _that smile._

And then one day, she was feeding the turtle ducks by the pond. Something caught her sight. There was a lone turtle duckling struggling amongst the crowd trying to snatch the food that she offered, but it was purposely pushed away from the crowd. Again and again it tried to thrust itself back into the multitude, but after a few tries, it apparently gave up.

It was perching by the far end of the pond.

She stood up and little steps by steps she walked towards that one turtle duckling. Swiftly and quietly she picked it up from the water. The startled turtle duckling quickly hides into its soft shell. Curiously, she took peek into the dark hole. She tore a puny piece of bread and tried to stuff it into the hole-

A hand snatched rudely the turtle duckling away from her!

She looked up; brows closely knit at the man, her father. She pouted her mouth in detest. But he was not looking at her. Another hand placed firmly on her shoulder. Without warning, he tossed the turtle duckling with full swing of force, and it flew across the pond and-

_Thud_!

It hit hard one of those white walls. Its green house cracked and scattered. She wanted to rush to its side, she tried to dash to that turtle duckling's side. But the hand that placed on her little shoulder was so heavy that she could not move. Instead, she stood there quietly as she watched the nearby servants quickly took the limp body and cleaned its broken shell. In mere seconds, every traces of its existence were gone.

**Gone.**

And there was something in her eyes.

'That is how weak must be treated.' He muttered. She looked up at him again because she knew that he no longer like to lower his body anymore like he used to, not to her anyway, or to Zuko. And because her father was a very tall man, so she could only see his goatee chin.

'Don't cry.' He sounded so unpleasant that it made her narrowed her eyes in confusion trying to uphold that watery view as she continued to look up at him. He looked down at her. Her blurry amber eyes went wide.

His expression was sending a shadowy chill down her little body.

'Compassion is for the weak.' His voice was quiet yet those words that came out from his mouth as though he was spitting them word by word. 'Remember that.'

She continued stared at him, as he turned around walked away slowly and quietly without looking back once at the spot where the turtle duckling _was gone_.

It made her felt uneasy inside out. And her unease mingling with curiosity haunted her that whole day. So, that night, she turned to her mother, but her mother was busy tending her older brother who was much more confused than she already was. He had been crying whole day long.

'Hush, Zuko.'

She stood by the open door, and gazed at the looming darkness in it. Like many good girls, she waited patiently for her mother to finish.

'Don't be afraid, Zuko.'

She heard a familiar humming in the darkness, so mellow yet full of sorrow, one that she had not been hearing a while. Suddenly, she found herself to be frightened,_ but by what?_ She could not tell. But she did not move, she continued to wait quietly and patiently for her turn.

And then there was only stretched silence.

'Mom...?' She cried out into the darkness. There was no reply. Quietly she made her way to her brother's big bed. Her mother figure was not there, she was not sitting on the end of the bed. And she narrowed her eyes.

She was sleeping beside her brother and she was smiling. A smile that Azula had not seen for a long time, not even when her mother was with her, a smile that she only gives to her brother willingly, that same smile that she remember when she was smiling with her father together, _long time ago_.

There was something in her eyes and in her heart.

And they made her felt so weak.

'Mom...?" she cried again, tugging her sleeping mother. Her mother stirred a little, 'Azula?' and she groggily sat up.

'I'm scared, mom.'

'Oh, come here, Azula.' Her mother gave her a long hug. 'It's all right, Azula. It's all right.' _So simple_, 'Now go back to sleep.' _Just like that. _But she was not satisfied. That mysteriously dreadful feeling did not go away, instead it grew. She still feels empty. She still feels weak. She still feels scared. But she obeyed anyway. She made her way back to the door.

'Mom...?'

She paused at the doorway.

'Yes, Zuko?'

Her hands rolled into little balls.

'Is it wrong to care...? Be-because that turtle duckling...I saw today... no-no one even bother-'

'Hush, Zuko. It's not wrong to show compassion to others.' _Compassion? She was showing compassion to her? _Her fists quivered. _Love..._ ..._Love is same as compassion, right?_ She turned around and looked into the darkness. She saw a silhouette lowered down and touched her lips on a small figure's head. _No, not that simple._

And it hurt.

'_Compassion is for the weak.'_ That voice echoed again, that expression flashed again. And she saw that turtle duckling squeaking and then-

_Gone._

_**Gone.**_

_**GONE.**_

Something in her cracked.

'_That is why, you must be strong, and that is why you must be powerful.'_

Their smile that etched so deep in her memory was suddenly being eaten away so quickly only to be replaced by her father's harsh expression. _'Compassion is for the weak.' _The voice was cold and hard.

From that day onwards, she had decided that she will not become a compassionate person. She will not need compassion. She will not be weak.

And it will remain like that for a very very long time.

* * *

3.

He used to say '_You are going to be a great leader to our nation_' to Azula.  
She used to say '_You are going to be a great hero to our nation_' to Zuko.

Not long ago, they use to tell them all sort of things.

* * *

They used to tell all sorts of differently things to each of the siblings, to Azula and to Zuko. They would usually take the time _to care_ for their own chosen child, even if they are busy, _even if one of them was gone_.

'Hero?' she lifted her eyes from her scroll. That was one term she had not been hearing for a long time. Apparently her brother was intrigued by some stupid stories, her pathetic uncle had been brainwashing him with.

'Hero is the same as leader!'

She placed down her scrolls and shot a sympathetic glance at her brother. 'Don't be so naive, Zuzu.' She shook her head as she continued to smirk. 'Hero is never the same as leader.'

'Who told you that?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Oh come on, you don't have to be a genius to know the difference.' But she did not bother to explain, she continued reading that boring scroll detailing about the geographical maps of Water Tribes. _The Southern Water Tribe is usually located at bearing ... _She raised her brow. _Why do they even care about recording bearings about where the Water Tribes are? They could waterbend land whenever they want. And they are always north or south. Whoever wrote this scroll is a nutcase and whoever reading it is a fool._

Immediately, she burned the scroll and took another scroll.

There was a moment of pause. She knew that he was staring at her. But he resumed anyway. 'If you're so clever, what would you want to be?'

'A leader. A great leader.' She replied without looking up. _The greatest skill of bending in any elements is not wasting any excessive energy while bending. _This sounded promising. _And to achieve that goal, the easiest way is not to bend them at all, by not bending, one will need not find his self grasping for air and he will has a lot of energy to fight with his fis-_

'So you want to be a great hero after all.' _What the- How did such scrolls manage to elude its way here?_

'No. A great leader is not same as a great hero.' She burned that ridiculous scroll. _Why are there so many idiots in this world? _

'Then, what kind of leader you want to be?'

She looked at him; she knew he would react if she told him that she wanted to be 'A Leader that knows no compassion.' _Just like Dad._

It was her brother's turn to laugh. 'What hero is that? A great hero supposed to be compassionate! That's what mom used to tell me.'

She let out a weary sigh. 'It's not. Like I said, skull brain, _Hero is never the same as leader._'

'Oh yeah? Then, why they called Uncle a Hero? They even nicknamed him as The Dragon of the West.'

'Yes, he used to lead, but now look at him, he's a sad old loser who has no life except tea drinking and pai sho day in day out, what kind of leader is that? The only times he ever leads are during a bunch of teapot losers' parties.'

'...Then- then, what about dad? He's the Fire Lord and they all proclaimed him as our nation hero!'

She almost smacked her head. 'Are you serious, Zuzu? How old are you? Five? Six?' _And that was even before __**she**__ left_. 'They proclaimed him as the hero because they had to. Did you not realise that in the entire history of Fire Nation, all those _dead_ Fire Lords loved to be called as heroes of the nation. And Dad's no different.' _Hypocrite._ 'You know that more than I do.'

And she knew she finally hit the silencing jackpot. He opened his mouth and closed it again, and opened it again, but there was not voice coming out from it. He was obviously speechless. And she smirked at him victoriously. _You lose. _He lowered his head, his balled hands quivered. The silence lingered. It was enough; she could now just continue with her another-

'No! I'm going prove it to you!'

She sighed. 'Prove what?'Her grin had wavered; her nut brain brother was testing her patience long enough. 'To prove that you are a hero or leader?'

'Both.'

She paused and looked at him, what he was saying was something that cannot be true, a hero could not be a leader and a leader could not be hero, because of the opposing qualities they possessed. She knew clearly because her dad had personally proven that. Her smirk returned. 'How?' She spoke up. 'How are you going to be both?'

'I'm already a leader, I'm the crown prince. So I just need be compassionate.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Oh right, I forgot,' she raised her voice in mock tone. '_So_ you are going to be the _kind and compassionate Fire Lord Zuko_ someday.'

'How?' she repeated. 'How are you going to be compassionate?'

He hesitated. That was not good enough.

'How? Zuzu?' She was pushing him. _So?_

'_How?_'

'I'm going to prove it to you in today's war council!' He shot back defiantly.

_Ouch._

She did not see that coming.

_How- _

It was his turn to smug cockily. _Why did he- _A realization hit her, she narrowed her eyes. _Uncle_.

And he noticed her expression. 'You don't know, huh? Oh right, you wasn't invited.' He shrugged in pretend as if saying, _and there's nothing you can do with that. _'Guess you won't be seeing me proving that to you.'

Immediately her expression shifted into one of those cruel grins. 'Oh, don't worry _brother_; I don't think there is a need to _be there_ to watch you being a _hero_.' Because she could already predict the outcome. 'Besides,' she examined at her nails. 'I don't think that will be the _only place_ that you can prove it to me.'

And so, on that seemingly regular day, he spoke up for his ideal, for _her_ ideal, to be a compassionate hero, to save those weak and powerless soldiers, only to be scorched on the face straight-on by their father and banished. _Hero indeed._ She smirked.

Her brother was forced to leave the palace, to pursue something that even their ancestors failed to succeed, so that he could claim back his ridiculous honour, and return as a _Hero_, while she was officially declared as the crown princess, the heir apparent to her father's throne.

So, she was an official leader now.

But being a mere official leader was not enough. She needed to be a _great leader._ That was what she was supposed to do, that was what she had determined to do, long time ago, and she would not stop there, and she would continue to climb her way up.

Her chance finally came when her father granted her the chance to go out, beyond the boundary of the big blue, to hunt her brother and drag him back. Within that seemingly small task laid another opportunity, the opportunity to hunt the Avatar, and following behind that opportunity was Ba Sing Se, an enormous city that never breaks.

She smirked again. _Everything was perfect_.

And so, she captured that city and zapped the Avatar and _induced_ her brother back. It was all done nicely in that one timely chance. Within few months, she found herself back at the Fire Nation's Capital with her scar face brother. Her people welcome them with such open arms. They roared, they cheered, they shouted. They celebrated. Fireworks flew up into the sky and-

'-the heroes of the Fire Nation!'

She narrowed her eyes. They were giving them _the hero welcome_. They were supposed to give her a _future leader_ welcome. She swivelled her head and looked at her silent brother. He did not smile, his expression was blank. Instead he just gazed below, his fists tightened. He did not seem to care. _Fine._ She will deal with that later. She resumed her glance at the seemingly endless fireworks.

_It didn't matter._

The most important thing was that she was one more step closer to being what she was told that she was going to be. She felt more triumphant than ever before. Her smirk grew.

_Yes, __**he**__ was right_.

She was going to be a great leader to their nation.

* * *

4.

He used to say, 'On the day Sozin's comet arrive, we will finally emerge victorious! We will finally be the world's true leader!'  
And _she _said nothing. Not anymore. She could no longer hear what _she_ used to say. _She_ was gone. No one's here to tell her anything that will contradict his words. Not Anymore.

Awhile ago, he used to tell her that everything that they ever dreamed of will finally come true.

* * *

He used to tell her that how close they were in fulfilling their ancestors' dream; that hundred years old dream that had been governing their lives is coming to a close end and a new dream that will last forever is going to begin, soon. They were so close. So close to dominate the world. She was so close. She was so close to attain the things she had been pursuing since _that incident_. She was so close to be the great leader to their nation.

So close.

But she was losing his attention. He no longer see her the way he used to see, instead he saw her with the same frown he used on her unfavoured brother. He did not bother to witness her ascension into the Fire Lord. He even left her to scorch the Earth Kingdom land all by his self! And that was her idea to begin with! It was all because she had lost her pet brothe-

_Family._

She paused, and looked around. There was no one.

-brother to begin with. She had lost two of her most useful underlings. After what she had done, after what they had been through, they would dare to defy her because of her brother? Insolent fools! They were trai-

_Betrayal._

She paused again, and looked around once more. Nothing.

The place was supposed to be empty. She couldn't trust anyone, not anymore. She shook her head and narrowed her amber eyes. Blue flame spout from her palm and she threw them to the unlit candles at corners of the room.

No one. Nothing. Empty.

So close.

She had decided that in order not to lose anything anymore, she will have to be the first to eliminate these unreliable _things_. She disbanded unfaithful The Dai Li, banished her old annoying advisers, exiled her worthless servants and just when she thought that she was finally safe, in control, then suddenly her own hair disobeyed her! They were all out of her control. Things that she could not control must be locked up, banished, eliminated!

ELIMINATED!

Swiftly, she took something sharp and her annoying bangs were gone. And she felt somewhat at ease.

_In control. _

She laughed.

Only then she could finally be certain that she will not loss anything again. A little while more, a little bit more and she will finally-

'Such a waste.'

Knit her brow so ever tightly.

_Who-_

She turned around and glared, hard. _No. It couldn't be...it couldn't... _Something in her hand slipped away and fell on the crimson carpet, quietly.

'You had such a beautiful hair.'

_She_ was there!

_How-_

'Why are you here?' She spat, her eyes narrowed into mere slits.

'Can't a mother see her daughter's coronation?' _She_ was mocking her, but _her_ voice sounded so mellow yet full of sorrow.

She snorted in disgust. 'Don't make me laugh. What do you care?'

But_ the lady_'s expression softened. 'Azula, you don't have to do this.'

_That look_, that pathetic look of pity! _That lady_ was showing her that _same_ compassion, again! That same compassion! She turned around quickly against _her_. She should not face _her_. She must not face _her_! _She _should not be here. _She_ was branded a traitor. _She_ was banished!

So close.

'Do what? The only thing you ever care was Zuko. I'm just a _monster_ to you.' Even after so long, that word still tasted so bitter in her own mouth.

_What is wrong with that child? And Azula heard that._

She heard that clearly.

'_You are wrong_, Azula. _I do care_.'

Her narrowed amber eyes widened. _That tone. _She knew that tone elsewhere, she knew that tone all too clearly, the tone that that lady only uses when she was with her traitor brother, when she was hiding behind the long tapestry's dark shadow watching _them_, so long ago.

_No._

_No! _

'_I do care_, but maybe I did not try hard enough.' _She_ paused. '_I'm sorry_.'_** NO!**_

There were some things in her eyes. _Stop_. Those, those things shouldn't be there, they should only be present in those lowly peasants' eyes, begging for mercy. _Stop_. She mustn't let them flow out... _Stop_. But they were ignoring her. _Stop._ They were flowing down her cheeks. She couldn't control them. Her feet staggered, her body quivered. But _that lady_ continued to talk. _Stop, please._

'But know this, my daughter,' _STOP._ **'**I had always love you,' _STOP!_ 'No matter what you are.' _**STOP! **__She_ was not supposed to say anything anymore!

Not here! Not Now! _She_ can't be!

_This wasn't fair!_

'And I will always love you.'

With rage, she swiftly snatched the closest thing to her and tossed at _that lady_. And_ she_ tumbled and shattered into pieces. _That lady_ was gone.

_So close._

_This wasn't fair._ She cried. _This wasn't fair at all._

And on that fiery red day, she lost everything.

_So close.

* * *

_

5.

Whenever someone says, 'Fire Lord Zuko is the most compassionate Fire Lord ever,' she would always grin.

And it will go on in that way for a long time.

* * *

They used to say a lot of things.

Now, both of them are no longer here. They can't tell her things anymore. They were both gone, gone on their separate paths: he, to be a powerful leader of a nation only to plunge faster than the climb; she, to be a compassionate hero to her own vulnerable son only to be vanished without a trace.

Now, it doesn't matter to her anymore.

She looks at her coarse hands. She had climbed to the _tallest peak_ of the world. Swiftly she snaps her fingers, a blue flame sparks out of the noise and form above her fingers. And she had plunged into the _darkest slums_ of the world. The flickering blue fire shifts into a much common red blaze.

'I see you are here.'

She turns around.

An old man appears from the veil that separates the inner part and the outer part of the structure. His hands clamps together in front of his belly hiding themselves under his long sleeves. His face is relatively merry.

Her fingers withdraw back into a fist. 'Don't worry, I won't burn this place.' Nonchalantly, she places her fists down on the wooden table. 'There.' Her lips curve upward in an unnoticeable fraction. 'I'm here for another purpose.'

The old man looks at her, despite his merry looking face; she knows that he is thinking something else. So, she waits.

And then he grins. 'I do hope you are here for what I hope you will finally do.' His voice is quiet.

She feigns huff in soft exasperation. 'I'm _here_. What more can you hope?'

'What more can I hope?' He asked in return. His smile grew so wide that his teeth had already occupied almost half of his face. 'I only hope that you will do as what my heart is hoping the moment you came here.'

She sighs in light annoyance, while shaking her head gently. 'You know, it's not like I will be _running away_, again.'

His smile fades just a fraction, just. 'Perhaps.' Then, he raises his brow as he looks at her amusedly. 'I heard that Aang had been quiet busy, travelling here and there trying to collect those sky bison whistles that were _somehow_ fallen into the innocents' hands.'

_Oh? _She smirks. _So he knows._ _Then there's no need to deny that. _'I heard that he had been leading a rather slow and peaceful yet somewhat lazy life bombarded by solitude and boredom and a _little disappointment_ in the high mountains of the Air Nomads.'

She noticed his eyes waver a little, just a little. 'Ah, yes, Toph told me about that. Meditations, hoping for some _self_ discovery, she said.' But he does not elaborate further.

_Figures._

She shrugs light-heartedly._ But there's no need to admit either._ 'Perhaps the culprit was trying to _re-motivate_ the Avatar's dying spirit.'

'Oh?' his hawk eyes still watching keenly, mouth still smiling.

She leans back on the chair and crossed her legs. 'The people told me it's been awhile since they saw him. So maybe, that culprit decided that it would be nice to see him flying here and there once in awhile.'

Once again, he is in one of his frequent ponders with his intense eyes still latch so tightly unto hers. She knows that he was seeking something, something unpleasant, something dark, something deceitful, but she has nothing to be afraid. _Not anymore_. So, she gazes boldly back into his eyes. She has nothing to hide.

For the next few seconds, there is only taut stillness between them. None of them falter. And so, the silence stretched on.

Suddenly, he grins in relief as he relaxes his brow; his gigantic smile grows back on his face. 'Or, perhaps, the culprit finally found _her _own sense of _righteous_ humour.' His voice is playful yet sincere. And she likes that.

She laughs heartily. 'Maybe.' Her voice sounds like little bells ringing crisply in her ears. And she likes that too. 'But aren't we a little off topic?'

'Oh, yes, yes, I'm sorry; I'm too easily carried away by the _good news_.' He readjusts his smile into one of those finely composed mock grin. 'So what do you need?'

She throws a glance at the table full of tiny packages with various colourful labels pasted on them, some are delicate, and others are fancy, few are elegant and piles behind them is a lone ridiculously plain bag. _I don't need to be a leader. _She gazes back up to the old man, who has been humming merrily by himself the moment she stares at those little bags. _I don't want to be a hero._ Her grin grows.

Now, she says, 'What I need, uncle,' she pauses, she thought she heard her uncle made a sudden sharp intake of breath, obviously holding his breath while anxiously waiting for her answer, her smile grows wider and her voice more determined than ever, 'is just a cup of hot jasmine tea.'

And he shrieks happily in agreement.


End file.
